WikiLeaks founder a mercurial character who could not bear his own secrets, according to writer Andrew O'Hagan

By Esther Addley, The Guardian, 21 Feb., 2014

By Andrea Elliott and Rebecca R. Ruiz, New York Times, Feb. 21, 2014

By Diaa Hadid in Beirut, Associated Press, Feb. 19, 2014

Two suicide bombers blew up their cars near an Iranian cultural center in Beirut on Wednesday, killing at least four people and wounding scores, including children in an orphanage, in the latest attack targeting Shiite areas in Lebanon.

An al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for the bombings, saying they were retaliation for Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian war alongside President Bashar Assad's forces. The Shiite militant organization is backed by Iran.

By Jennifer H. Cunningham,  New York Daily News, Feb. 19, 2014

Spurred by the shooting of 4-year-old Luisito Oyola Jr., six months ago, Assemblyman Luis Sepulveda and state Sen. Jeffrey Klein co-authored a bill that increases the charges for a gunman caught firing around kids.

The lawmakers introduced the measure on Wednesday.

If passed, “Luisito’s Law” would make it a felony to shoot a gun within 500 feet of a school, park or playground — a charge that carries a 3 1/2- to 15-year prison sentence [....]

By Robert Mackey,The Lede, nytimes.com, Feb. 18, 2014

Lots of video, Tweets, etc. I listened to this one of the square this evening; sure sounds like a revolution:

Virginia prosecutors hid exculpatory evidence and defied a federal judge in a death-penalty case. Will the Supreme Court let them get away with it?

By Andrew Cohen, The Atlantic, Feb. 18, 2014

By Matt Ford, The Atlantic, Feb. 18, 2014

By Nicholas Confessore, New York Times, Feb. 17/18, 2014

Tom Steyer, a retired hedge fund manager, plans to spend as much as $100 million this year on a hard-edge campaign to pressure officials and candidates to support climate change measures.

By Jeff Macke, Yahoo Finance, Feb. 13, 2014

Over the last week both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have downgraded Puerto Rico’s bonds to “junk.” The move exacerbates the Island Commonwealth’s already crippling debt burden and raises the very real possibility that a US bailout could be needed to save it from a full-scale economic meltdown.

By Phil Gunson, CNN, Feb. 13, 2014

Caracas  -- A day after political violence in Venezuela left three dead on the streets of Caracas, authorities issued an arrest warrant for an opposition leader on charges including conspiracy and murder in connection with the clashes, an official with Venezuela's justice ministry said Thursday.

By Robert Mackey and Christine Hauser, The Lede @ nytimes.com, Feb. 14, 2013

By Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, Feb. 12/13, 2014

SOCHI, Russia — An environmentalist and leading critic of Russia’s preparations to host the Winter Olympics was sentenced Wednesday to serve three years in a penal colony, in a ruling that rights groups condemned as legally flawed and obvious retribution for his political activities.

By Thomas B. Edsall, New York Times Op-Ed, Feb. 11/12, 2014

A passionate group of labor economists has taken up a cause championed 40 years ago by the late Senator Russell Long of Louisiana: to turn every worker into a capitalist.

By Gina Kolata, New York Times, Feb. 11/12, 2014

One of the largest and most meticulous studies of mammography ever done, involving 90,000 women and lasting a quarter-century, has added powerful new doubts about the value of the screening test for women of any age.

By Susan Dunn, New York Review of Books, Feb. 20 issue and available online now

Review of Doris Kearns Goodwin's new book: The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism.

Excerpt:

The legal industry's obsession with performance metrics has contributed to its dramatic collapse. Could the same happen with physicians and hospitals?

By Richard Gunderman and Mark Mutz, The Atlantic, Feb. 11, 2014

By Amy Goldstein, Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2014

The Obama administration has quietly reworked rules and computer code for HealthCare.gov to try to stem an outpouring of discontent by some Americans who have discovered that the health plans they bought do not include their old doctors or allow them to add new babies or spouses.

By Martin Fackler, New York Times, Feb. 6, 2014

[....] His deafness won him praise as Japan’s modern-day Beethoven.

It turns out his magnum opus was his own masquerade.

By Ben Hubbard, New York Times, Feb. 3/4, 2014

ISTANBUL — Al Qaeda’s central leadership has officially cut ties with a powerful jihadist group that has flourished in the chaos of the civil war in Syria and that rushed to build an Islamic state on its own terms, antagonizing the wider rebel movement [....]